Finally got to see it due to the holidays. Its very much a mixed bag of good. We finally figure out who the Silence are, priests of the papal mainframe under the female Pope who is a hottie and friend of the Doctor. It starts with a message that every race is getting on planet with a town called Christmas. The Papal is keeping everyone at bay while the Doctor tries to figure out what is going on. Clara is having a bad Christmas, asks the Doctor for help where we learned he shaves his head and is hanging out with the head of a Cyberman named Handles.

Clara and the Doctor head to the planet where low and behold there is the crack in time. We find out the crack is housing Gallifray from the Day of the Doctor. The town is named Christmas, but the planet is Trenzalore, the final resting place of the Doctor. They are asking for confirmation from the Doctor. The Pope doesn't like it, because if the TimeLords return its Time War 2, the sequel that will lead to the destruction of everything. The Doctor sends Clara and the Tardis away while he begins what appears to be a century standoff with every race. The town rallies around the Doctor and be comes their savior.

Clara eventually returns after being stuck in time with the Tardis for who knows how long. And this is the bad. Clara stays there for a bit where the Doctor explains his regenerations are up. Then Clara is sent back again to have a heart to hear with her grandmother. We also meet her parents with the leaf who turn out to be kinda stupid. There was really no reason to send her back again. The Tardis does come back to her thanks to the Pope who is flying the Tardis.

The Doctor is ancient and the Daleks have taken over and are beginning their final assault. Clara convinces the Timelords to help the Doctor. They give him the biggest regeneration ever that destroys the Daleks and probably most of the Papal Mainframe army. Clara returns to the Tardis to look for the Doctor after the explosion. The Doctor is young again, but its only temporary. He either hallucinates and sees a young Amy and then an older Amy or the Tardis is showing him what he needs to see. In one of the blink if you missed, you shouldn't blink in Doctor Who by the way, 11 eleven becomes 13. Peter Capaldi arrives complaining about the color of his kidneys and has no idea how to fly the Tardis. So, the Doctor regenerates and the Tardis is crashing, so standard procedure.

This was not the opus that was End of Time and the Bad Wolf ones, but it was good for what it was. You can say that Day of the Doctor being a part one or part two if you count Name of the Doctor or whatever.. I do wish we would have seen River and the others who were supposed to be buried at Trenzelore, but that timeline is changed, I think. The bad was Clara's parents and coming and going for no reason at times. The Good was everything else from the now shaved head Doctor to the Doctor as the children of Christmas' protector to the battles. The Doctor's speech about we are all different people in stages of our lives with the Amy Pond cameo killed me. It was beautiful and moving. All in all, a good end to the Matt Smith run.

(edited by lotjx on 28.12.13 0834)

(edited by lotjx on 28.12.13 0836)The Wee Baby Sheamus.Twitter: @realjoecarfley its a bit more toned down there. A bit.

Only a dues ex machina because there were so many ways around it, but no matter what the "fans" would have complained.

"Tattoos are the mullets of the aughts." - Mike Naimark

"Don't stop after beating the swords into ploughshares, don't stop! Go on beating and make musical instruments out of them. Whoever wants to make war again will have to turn them into ploughshares first" - Yehuda Amichai

As I mentioned in "The Day of the Doctor" thread last month, that was the first-ever episode of DW I ever watched. Since then, I have completely geeked out over this show, and I've watched the entire Series 1 (with Eccleston) as well as key shows from Tennant and Smith's runs.

I still have significant gaps in my knowledge of this show to fill, so some plot points were lost on me.

My favourite part of Doctor Who is the regeneration, and how each Doctor has handled it (both classic and new series). I like the sad ones, and this was appropriately sad. Great speech by Smith at the end and a surprisingly quick change (almost like a sneeze) into Capaldi.

I can't believe we have to wait eight months before the next episodes, but I can use that time to catch up a little more.

Anybody see this yet? Saw it tonight and thought it was very entertaining. Lots of subtle humor and quite a few laugh out loud moments. I generally hate Rene Zellwegger, but she was actually tolerable. John Kasinski, Kazniski, Kannicki?